Kris Hopkins told MPs about this picture of an Iraqi soldier, taken on February 28 1991 as Saddam Hussein's forces attempted to retreat from Kuwait City, to warn of the horrors of war. Photograph: Kenneth Jarecke/Reuters

The spectre of one of the most notorious images (above) from the first Gulf war hung over the House of Commons this afternoon.

Kris Hopkins, a former soldier who was elected as Conservative MP for Keighley at the general election, cited the memory of the Iraqi soldier as he spoke of the horrors of war.

Hopkins, who served with the Duke of Wellington's Regiment in Northern Ireland, Germany and Kenya, was reviving an old parliamentary tradition in which former soldiers tell gung-ho colleagues to pipe down.

In this case Hopkins did not criticise politicians. Instead he criticised the media for reducing war to "sanitised movie footage". This is how Hopkins opened his speech:

Having watched the debates and diplomacy taking place ever since the Falklands War and having observed the battles on CNN of sanitised movie footage of jets taking off, troops returning fire, Union Jacks attached to aerials and advancing tanks – what a daunting thought to be in the House debating and contemplating the responsibility we have for the deployment of peoples whose principle purpose is to kill other people on our behalf.

Hopkins gave a vivid account of how soldiers kill:

During my basic training in the army I realised that a sergeant shouting at me to stab and scream and stab again a bail of hay with a fixed bayonet was teaching me how to rip somebody apart. A few years later I saw the remains of an IRA terrorist unit which had been ambushed by an SAS unit. The remains were shredded by the hundreds of bullets that had gone through their bodies.

Hopkins then mentioned the notorious image from the first Gulf war in 1991:

A friend of mine, following the first Gulf war, showed me pictures he took of the convoy attempting to escape back up to Iraq. One of the pictures was a charred, black head and a desperate hand – black and maimed – trying to leave the vehicle.

There is nothing glorious in war, there is nothing romantic about it. I would say to some members of media who have portrayed some form of entertainment about what is going on and what has gone on in previous wars – it is is just not right. I am afraid that human beings need to commit brutal, savage attacks on each other to win wars.

Hopkins, who described the 2003 Iraq war as "illegal" and the ongoing Afghan campaign as "folly", said Britain, the US and France are struggling to find the "moral high ground" even though Muammar Gaddafi killed some of his colleagues. He spoke of his unease as he gave an example of the insensitivity of people who have no idea about war:

I feel uncomfortable about going to war. It is not a simple choice. It is a really difficult choice to contemplate.

This morning, when I was coming to work, I listened to a phone-in on BBC television. It asked a question about whether we should kill Gaddafi. People were phoning in. It was almost like a gladiatorial, thumbs-up or thumbs-down about what the populace thought. I've got to say I was fairly disgusted about this form of entertainment about the killing of another human, however disgusting he is.

Hopkins also had a message for Arab leaders:

While we wage war on our enemy, Muslim brothers and Arab leaders – with a few exceptions – remain silent. It is more convenient for the infidel to kill your Muslim brothers and gesture disapproval than stand up to a tyrant.

To the new leaders of the emerging democracies out there in the Middle East, I say to you: 'The next time a murderer comes to the end of his reign, you gather in your House, like we are today, and think about how you're going to take your share of the responsibility and what you're going to contribute.'

Hopkins then came to the end of his speech. MPs, who might have thought that Hopkins would oppose the military action, listened in silence as he said he would support the government after its success in securing a United Nations security council resolution.

Hopkins was speaking in the tradition of former soldiers who are often the most cautious voices when it comes to war. Margaret Thatcher was famously irritated during the Falklands War by her foreign secretary Francis Pym, and by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, who were wary of military action.

But the former prime minister had to be careful. Pym and Runcie were decorated war heroes who both won the Military Cross during the second world war.

David Cameron, who was still sitting on the government frontbench during the speech by Hopkins, took a different approach to Thatcher. At the end of the speech the prime minister stood up, walked the length of the chamber and up the stairs to the seat occupied by Hopkins to congratulate him.

Tories believe Hopkins made the most important speech of the day because he summed up the mood in the chamber. There is deep unease about the military action but, in the end, support for the government.